


Come Morning Light

by ravengremlin



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Exiled TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Fluff, Frostbite, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Time Travel, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29867022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravengremlin/pseuds/ravengremlin
Summary: When Tommy dies in Pandora’s Vault with Dream standing over him, blood and a sadistic smile filling his vision, Tommy doesn’t know what to expect. Well, that’s not true. He expects death. He expects the cold respawn void or to come back as a ghost with little to no memories.What he doesn’t expect, however, is to wake up in a bed.(Or, Tommyinnit dies and wakes up in the past during his exile)
Relationships: Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 245





	1. all that's dead and gone

When Tommy dies in Pandora’s Vault with Dream standing over him, blood and a sadistic smile filling his vision, Tommy doesn’t know what to expect. Well, that’s not true. He expects death. He expects the cold respawn void or to come back as a ghost with little to no memories.

What he doesn’t expect, however, is to wake up in a bed. 

As soon as Tommy realizes that he’s in a bed, he jolts into awareness. He shouldn’t be in a bed. He shouldn’t be alive. He’s on the brink of spiraling into a panic when his eyes adjust to see darkness and yellow walls. This isn’t the prison, he realizes. He looks around the room until his eyes catch on a log with a bell attached to it in the corner and he freezes.

And maybe he is dead, he thinks, because there’s no way for him to be back at Technoblade’s house. At this realization, Tommy unfreezes and scrambles to get out the bed. He barely pauses at the bottom of the ladder as he climbs it in seconds and… oh. He knows that cow. He knows those mobs. He knows this room. 

With shaky hands, he climbs up the rest of the ladder and into Techno’s storage area. He pinches himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming and then decides that yes, he is in Hell. 

Tommy opens the doors and steps outside into the snow. The cold is nearly unbearable, but he can barely feel it. He takes a step and sinks into the snow up to his shins. Halfheartedly, he notes that he’s missing a shoe, but he doesn’t have it in him to care. He’s already dead after all, right?

He stumbles through the snow, each step more difficult than the last, but he has to get away. He doesn’t want to be in Technoblade’s house. Because if this is Hell, then he most certainly doesn’t want to be there when Technoblade gets home. He doesn’t want to know what would happen. So even though it’s exhausting, he keeps struggling through the snow.

Tommy’s probably a third of the way to the nether portal when he feels his legs give out beneath him and he falls backward into the snow. It’s so cold and he’s so tired. It wouldn’t hurt to rest here for just a little bit, right? Besides, he can’t feel much of anything now. 

Idly, he stares up at the sky as he watches the snowflakes fall onto his face and the way his breath comes out as fog. Yeah, sleep sounds nice, he thinks. His eyes fall shut and the comforting darkness embraces him once again.

\---

Not too far away, Technoblade is riding back to his house on Carl. He sighs in relief when his house finally comes into view. At the same time, the voices start screaming about Tommy, and his relief abruptly ends.

  
“Chat, Tommy isn’t here. He’s back in exile, remember?” Techno tries to reason with them. They ignore him and continue screaming. He groans at the incoming headache. He’s had a long day and he doesn’t particularly want to deal with Chat right now, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have a choice in the matter.

As he rides closer to his house, he notices faint imprints of footsteps that are quickly being covered up by the snow. Chat grows louder. With another sigh, he dismounts Carl and puts the horse in the stable. Then he starts to follow the swiftly disappearing footsteps. 

The footsteps are clumsy and uneven, he notes as he follows them. At some point, they start to drag through the snow, almost like the person was getting tired. Not too soon after, Techno spots a dark lump in the snow only a few paces in front of him. He rushes forward and kneels in the snow as Chat screams even louder in his head.

He recognizes that shirt. Suddenly, he understands why chat has been talking about Tommy. Because Tommy is laying on his lawn in the snow and has been there for who knows how long. And even though he may not care about Tommy, Techno still finds himself picking him up and carrying him back to his house. He tells himself that he’s doing it just because it would be cruel to leave a 16-year-old to die alone in the snow (Chat disagrees, but when has he ever cared about what they think?). 

Techno hurries back to his house and oddly enough, finds himself grateful that his doors were left open. It makes it a lot easier to get inside quickly and gently lay Tommy down on the floor before shutting the doors behind him. He shrugs off his cloak and covers Tommy with it, and then he rushes up the ladder for a spare set of clothes that he can only hope will fit.

When Techno gets back down the ladder, he replaces Tommy’s wet clothes with his dry ones. He tries to ignore how the voices call for blood at the sight of bruises and burn marks scattered across Tommy’s skin like a macabre painting. He tries to ignore how Chat grows louder at how malnourished Tommy looks. Instead, he focuses on the steadily growing dread and feelings of panic making a home in his chest. He works quicker.

The clothes are too big, Techno decides once he’s done. The shirt hangs loosely off of Tommy’s shoulders, the sleeves cover his hands, and the pants are too long, but it’s better than the cold and sopping wet clothes that Tommy was wearing before. 

Then, Techno grabs a potion of fire resistance and a potion of regeneration. He props Tommy against the wall and crouches in front of him. 

“Tommy, wake up,” Techno says and lightly taps him on the cheek. “C’mon, I need you to work with me here.”

Tommy’s eyes flutter open slightly, and he must be out of it because he doesn’t even flinch. Instead, he just stares forward, unseeing and practically unresponsive. At the very least, it’s enough for him to swallow the fire resistance when Techno carefully pours it into Tommy’s mouth. 

The fire resistance should start slowly warming Tommy up in a few minutes, but for now, Techno has to wait for that to happen. Once it’s in effect, he can give Tommy the regeneration, which will hopefully reverse the damage inflicted by the frostbite.

“Hey, stay awake,” Techno says when he notices Tommy’s eyes starting to slip closed again. “Stay with me. You can’t fall asleep right now.”

His words don’t seem to have any effect, so Techno opts to snap his fingers in front of Tommy’s face. That seems to do the trick because Tommy flinches slightly and his eyes immediately snap open. Something about that reaction leaves Techno feeling slightly guilty and the Chat screaming for blood, but Techno’s just glad that Tommy’s awake. 

After a few minutes of trying to keep Tommy from falling asleep, Techno gently presses the back of his wrist against Tommy’s forehead. It’s warm, so Techno uncaps the regeneration potion and carefully pours it into Tommy’s mouth. Once Techno’s sure that he swallowed it, he relaxes a bit.

“You can sleep now, Tommy. I’ll be here when you wake up, okay?” Techno says, trying to make his voice as level and comforting as possible. Tommy sluggishly nods and his eyes fall shut. 

Techno sighs in relief and gets to his feet with a groan, stretching his arms out. He’s had a long day and he wants to sleep it off, but unfortunately, he needs to be there when Tommy wakes up to make sure that everything’s okay. With that in mind, he pulls a bed out of his inventory and places it in the corner before moving Tommy onto it. Then, Techno leans against a nearby wall until he finds himself drifting off with the faint mutters of Chat in the background.


	2. don't leave me here alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy has a panic attack in this chapter and there is referenced abuse, so if that bothers you, please don't read this.

The first thing that Tommy notices when he wakes up is that he isn’t in the snow anymore. The second thing he notices makes his breath catch in his throat and panic grip at his heart. Because Technoblade of all people is leaning against the wall across from him. 

He’s still staring at Technoblade when the piglin-hybrid’s eyes slowly open to look straight at him. He doesn’t conceal his flinch in time, and then Technoblade is moving forward and crouching in front of him. Tommy instinctively closes his eyes and pushes himself against the wall as hard as he can. He can feel himself start to spiral into a panic attack, but he doesn’t have it in him to care. Not when Technoblade is only a foot away from him.

Distantly, Tommy can hear Technoblade speaking in the background, but it sounds too muffled for him to make out the words. Then there’s a hand on his arm and he flinches back. His head hits the wall, but he can barely feel it and he doesn’t care. After all, a little bit of pain is nothing compared to what Technoblade is going to do to him. 

Desperate to make Technoblade get away from him or not hurt him as badly, Tommy starts speaking even though his chest feels like it’s caving in and he’s pretty sure there’s no air in his lungs. He tries his best not to stumble over his words. Wilbur always used to hate it when he did that.

“I’m sorry, Technoblade, I–” Tommy pauses to cough, but he looks up at Technoblade and continues. “I didn’t mean to– I didn’t mean to betray you. I was just– you were going to betray me first and– cause you owed that favor to Dream right? And I– you were going to betray me so I had to betray you first because I didn’t want to be alone with Dream again– please don’t leave me alone with him again, I’m sorry, I’ll do anything–”

“Tommy.” 

Technoblade’s voice abruptly interrupts Tommy’s panicked rambling and Tommy finds himself frozen in fear. Is this it? Is this where Technoblade gets mad at him and hurts him? Wilbur always had that same tone of voice and expression when he was mad at Tommy, when he had messed up and Wilbur needed to teach him, to punish him. 

“Tommy,” Technoblade repeats, and Tommy flinches and hesitantly meets his eyes. “Calm down.”

(Calm down? How is he supposed to calm down? Why isn’t Technoblade yelling at him or hurting him? Why doesn’t anything make sense?)

  
  
Tommy complies and inhales shakily, trying to match his breathing to Technoblade’s. It’s working, at least until his breath catches in his throat and he squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for the punishment for failure. 

Instead, when Technoblade speaks, his voice is calm. “It’s alright, keep on breathing. In and out, c’mon.”

Tommy doesn’t relax, but he hesitantly opens his eyes and starts breathing in time with Technoblade again. Eventually, his breathing levels out and Technoblade seems to relax a bit more. Tommy, however, is still waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Technoblade to show his true colors and tell Tommy what he really wants from him, because there has to be a catch. There’s always a catch.

“So, Tommy.” There it is, there’s the catch. Technoblade is going to kill him and– “Why were you passed out on my lawn? Last I heard you were in exile.”

...What. Tommy blinks at him once and then stares at him blankly for a good minute in confusion. He must take too long to answer because Technoblade speaks up again after a minute of silence.

“...Do I need to worry about you havin’ a concussion, or is the frostbite just still affecting you?” 

Tommy blinks at him slowly and then shakes his head, not trusting his voice not to give out on him. 

“You sure?” Technoblade tilts his head slightly, and he almost looks genuinely concerned. Almost, because Tommy knows better than to think that Technoblade actually cares about him. He learned that lesson long ago. 

So Tommy just nods again, and Technoblade seems to tentatively accept it. An awkward silence falls between them, the only sounds being the faint grunting of mobs and Tommy’s slightly shaky breathing. Normally, Tommy would fill this kind of awkward silence with his rambling, but he can’t. Not with Technoblade.

“...Well I’m gonna go make dinner, you want anything?” Technoblade says, pushing himself to his feet. 

Briefly, Tommy considers it. He’s hungry, but he learned to deal with that while in exile. He doesn’t want to be poisoned by Technoblade, so he finds himself shaking his head. 

Technoblade exits without a word after that, leaving Tommy alone with his thoughts. 

First of all, why does Technoblade think he’s in exile? Second, why isn’t he mad at Tommy? Unless his theory about this place being Hell is correct, and it’s set back when he was right out of exile. And maybe Technoblade is just trying to lure him into a false sense of security so he can stab Tommy in the back like he had done to Technoblade. There’s some sort of poetic irony in that, Tommy thinks. But that’s the only good reason that Tommy can come up with for all of this, unless he had somehow managed to time travel. Which would honestly be ridiculous. 

With that thought in mind, Tommy pulls his communicator out of his inventory and when he looks at the date on it, it doesn’t seem quite as ridiculous. Because this is his communicator, stained with ash from explosions and withers, with a crack on the screen from when he dropped it during the final time L’manburg was blown up. But in the top right corner, the date is set to be during his exile. 

Tommy stares at his communicator for a bit, and then he stares at it some more. Did he really time travel? Or maybe it’s all a dream and he’ll wake up in the prison cell with Dream any moment. 

(He doesn’t want to go back to Dream. In fact, he finds himself wishing that he did time travel because it’s better than the alternative. Better than being stuck with Dream again. Better than dying alone in a cell with the one person he hates more than anything else, more than Technoblade, and more than himself).

And what was it that Technoblade had said about dying like a hero as he spawned in withers and destroyed what little trust Tommy had left in him? Almost unwillingly, his mind summons the moment and it’s almost like he’s there again.

_ (Ash drifts through the air and fills his lungs. Tommy’s eyes sting and there’s the acrid taste of blood and smoke in his throat. He’s not sure if it’s the burns and bruises on his skin from the explosions that hurt or if it’s the pain in his chest. He thinks it might be both. _

_ Technoblade is standing there, gesturing wildly with wither skulls in his hands and soul sand piled behind him. There’s ash on his cloak and blood dripping from his sword. His hair is a mess, coming loose from its braid and hanging limply at the sides of his face. _

_ “Do you want to be a hero Tommy?” Technoblade drawls. Tommy’s ears are ringing. He doesn’t want to be a hero, he thinks. He’s tired of all the pain and suffering, he just wants it to end. “Then die like one!”  _

_ Technoblade summons the withers, and then there’s screaming and pain and even more ash and the smell of blood and–) _

He’s not there anymore, Tommy reminds himself. There are sheets under him and the cold is biting at his skin. There is no ash here, and if he pretends hard enough, he can almost imagine that he’s safe.

But he thinks about how Technoblade told him to die like a hero, and a bitter laugh escapes him. He didn’t die like a hero when Dream beat him to death. No, he died alone in a prison that he visited in a futile attempt to heal from his trauma. Look how that turned out. 

And maybe, just maybe, Tommy finds himself relating to Theseus. Because he too was exiled, and he almost died alone and hated. Because he died alone in a prison with his enemy standing over him. He died painfully, bruised and bleeding, even as he cried out for help. He called for help and no one came.

Maybe Tommy is the hero in this story. He doesn’t want to be.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any feedback, feel free to leave a comment and tell me! It's very much appreciated :)


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